Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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cattle, but water was in places scarce. This was the
district of “Bad Khyss," which I take to be
badkhiz or the “wind arousing,” an epithet
obtained from the gullies or natural configuration of the
country I am unable to trace the precise locality of the
third day's encampment in any published maps, but have
placed it according to the distance and data given. The
fourth march of Shakespeare's party was one of 30 miles,
that is, 18 miles during the night and 12 after sunrise,
for 9 miles " through the different little valleys
close to " the banks of the Khushk," the
remainder along the bed or banks of that rivulet. The
fifth march of 44 miles, in two divisions of 6f hours
night and 5j hours day, respectively, was to the Murghab River.
The road traversed was generally good, but quicksand was
observed in crossing the Khushk. I have taken the word
" Khushk," dry, as spelt by Abbott, in
preference to Shakespeare's " Khush," pleasant,
because it appears to be the more likely etymology; and
it seems to me that the " Khushk Assaib," or
rather " Khushk Assaib, dry icater-mill, of
Ferrier's and Vambery's maps cannot be far from the black
tents already referred to as the capital of the
Jamshidis. It was Ferrier's third march when going to
Maimana. He makes it 7 parasangs, or about 25 miles from
Khushk Ribiit, and describes the road as “stony,
across mountains and valleys,” and frequently cut up
by torrents very dangerous to pass after heavy
“rains." Abbott, disclaiming all intention to
publish any particulars relative to the practicability or
otherwise of the mountain chains he was traversing,
speaks of "a high plain above Parwiinah,"
whence he continued his route to the mountain ridge of
Kaitii, " avoiding the " more direct and
difficult passes." Having affected the passage
without accident, he descended some grassy heights and
pitched in a hollow; moving on, the next day, by a very
distressing cross-country path, over steep hills covered
with grass, to the Khushk rivulet, which ho ascended to
the so-called capital. Then passing this point,
“down the valley of the stream, averaging about half
a mile in width,” and bounded on either side by
sloping grassy downs, sprinkled with “flocks of
sheep and goats," he halted at a Jamshidi camp for
the night. In the morning, resuming his course “down
the valley," he came to a place called the
“Chhahl Dnkhtar," or Forty Virgins, and thence
to “Kara Tepe," or the Hack mound. Beyond this
place the black tents were scarce, but large flocks of
sheep were found. The shepherds came from Merv,
“bringing," we are told, — and the
statement is indicative of the local resources, —
“water and all other necessaries “on
asses."
From Kara Tepe the party marched to a spot two miles
short of a ruined castle designated “Kalah
Chaman-i-Bhayd." The last word should, I learn, be
“Bed," or “Bid," which would make the
name intelligible as the “Fort of the meadow of
Willows." Two castles succeed this, one “Kalah
Hauz-i-Khan," the Fort of the Khan's Reservoir; the
other, beyond the Badkhiz, but in the Mauri district,
called “the Fort of Maur." After this place
commenced, at least in 1840, the kingdom of Khorezm, or
more appropriately the Kleptarchy or Kleptocracy of the Turkmen.
A reed jungle having served as
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